Monday, April 21, 2008

The door contacts for the dome light aren't really designed to be serviced, but the spring in one of mine had snapped, requiring either replacement of the entire switch, or figuring out some way to disassemble and repair the assembly.

I opted for the latter and found that, after carefully filing away the rivet at the rear of the assembly, it was possible to disassemble the contact into its component parts.

I cleaned up the copper contacts, replaced the spring, and reassembled. I drilled and tapped the end of the aluminum plunger, and replaced the rivet with a small screw, using a stack of two plastic washers to hold the copper contact in place while insulating it from the rest of the switch.

About

The stalwart 122S "Amazon," produced between 1956 and 1970, went a long way in establishing Volvo's reputation for safety and reliability. I was looking for an 1800 when I saw the classified ad for my Amazon, but decided to take a chance, and have since fallen in love with designer Jan Wilsgaard's Nordic-Modern take on classic Detroit, not to mention the car's bulletproof reliability and often mind-boggling simplicity. I bought my 120 from its original owner, who lovingly drove it for 580,000 miles before handing the keys over to me. Any car that can survive half a century and half a million miles of abuse is all right in my book, and worthy of some TLC -- or at least a low budget restoration.